Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-09-23
CURRENT OPINION.
THE OLD-FAsHIONED WAY.

And so the everyday, cOmmonsense, old
fashioned philanthropist concludes that
the way to kill poverty is first to kill it
individually; to make the incapable ca
pable. the idle Industrious, the eXtrava-
giant frugal, the self-indulgent DENYING {;
in general, to make war against every
thing that makes for poverty by dimin-
ishing production or by promoting undue
consumption. The first lesson for man
whose work is worth $40 week to learn
is that he must not expect to live as well
as his neighbor who makes 500 week.
1t is wonderful how much poverty the
learning of this lesson would sweep
away. There would be plenty of chance
then for those hygienic considerations
for the feeble and helpless that is the
practical philanihropist's second duty
New York Graphic.
JOHN SHERMAN ON THE SURPLUS.
The constitution gives to Congress the
exclusive power to levy duties on i'm
ported goods, and to levy eXcises, which,
from their nature, cannot be levied by
States, except to a limited degree. Let
these fruitful sources of revenue be APP
piled for national purposes. Let them
be applied, as current revenue will allow,
to build up navy worthy of our name,
to restore our commerce upon the seas,
to pay to the States the money we prom
sed them in 1897 to refund the direct
tax imposed during the war, to protect
our coasts against foreign enemies, and,
better than all, by reasonable pensions,
to compensate in some degree the SER
vices and sacrifices of the soldiers of the
Union, and to relieve the widows and or
phans of those who perished that our
country might live.-[F a Recent
Speech.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE TARIFF.
protective tariff is a tax which mar
paws for the privilege of eating food, wearinl
clothes and living in house. Quincy Qll
Herald.
That is it precisely. The privilege OF
having things at hand to eat, materials
at hand to wear, and houses at hand tC
live in is attended with certain necessary
expenses. Men want to eat in peace anC
to live prosperously, and a certain degree
of social order, requiring for sixty mil
lions of people large machinery, is nee
essary to that end. Through protectiv,
tariff all this is secured, while at the sam,
time wages are maintained at higf
standard and the necessaries of life ar,
kept down to a reasonable figure. Wha
other system is so fruitful of blessings
I-INew York Tribune.
THE DANGER OF HYPOCRISY.
Whenever man undertakes habituall,
to express more than he really feels, anC
to act on belief or principle that doe
not really control him, whether it be il
worship or in conduct, he is " living be
yond his means" The result is just al
certain in this as in all other cases. The
moral fibre is weakened, conscience il
subsidized or dethroned and the man be
comes hypocrite. These consideration
indicate one of the dangers of excessiv,
ritual on the one hand and of abnorma
religious excitement and eccentric relig
ious methods on the other. In religion
as in all things, men should first of all b.
real. The morbid disposition to live be
yond ones means " is an evil constant,
and prayerfully to be guarded against il
the church as well as in the drawingroon
and the market-place.-LThe Churchman
VOLUNTARY FREIGHT RATES.
The st. Adams Messenger discover
that s. the policy of the railroads to adop
iron-clad rules upon the enactment of tn
interstate commerce law regarding pas
senger rates, is giving way to spirit o